Abandoned
by AiJaeDida
Summary: In the abandoned part of Domino Jou lives with a secret. There he takes someone in but shes not all that she seems to be. Someone from his past returns and why is Kaiba actings so weird? SXJ eventually Side pairings:YYxY RxB TxO MxM   Warnings:Tea bashing
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing…unfortunately.

A desolate road that has been uncared for what seemed to be years; roots grew along the cracked pavement, and what little greenery there was grew wildly. Homeless people were hanging around everywhere. This wasn't too shocking to anyone who knew about the abandoned part of Domino. It is the part of the city that was unable to recover from the corruption when Gozuboro infected the politics while he was CEO of Kaiba Corporation.

It was his money that often funded the politicians of Domino so he was able to control the city and all of its inhabitants. During that time unemployment and foreclosures were at an all-time high. The cops were just as bad as thugs and innocent civilians were victimized regularly.

When Seto Kaiba took over, he quickly ousted almost all of the politicians and afterwards there seemed to be inner investigations. Unfortunately the corrupted officials and police were viewed as the outcome of their environment by the government. So instead of removing them from duty they were removed from the lime light and put into the poorest neighborhoods in the city.

As the rest of the city began to slowly recover from the war like lives they'd become accustomed to, that dark corner of Domino continued to fester.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters, if I did it'll be all yaoi.

Domino High School was among the most famous schools in the country for its high academic standards, graduation rates and connections. Unfortunately, this also meant that the school's tuition was famously high, therefore, to enter the school the students must either enter from a wealthy family or win a scholarship for outstanding academics. Which was why the fact that Kaiba Seto of Kaiba Corp actually attending Domino High School wasn't shocking in the least, much to the chagrin of Jonounchi Katsuya.

Shaggy golden-dirty blonde hair that hid half of his face from view and baggy clothes that hung off of his thin frame. Normally looks like that would attract bullies. Unfortunately for those that believed that was the case and acted on it, learned quickly that Jonounchi was a skilled fighter that didn't pull his punches. The only person who successfully bullied Jonounchi was Kaiba.

Kaiba walked through the crowded halls as if he owned the place and it didn't take long for him to find his victim.

"Well, well…What's a mangy mutt like you doing amongst such pedigrees? Forgotten your place?" He said smirking. Unlike Jonouchi, Kaiba's auburn brown hair was perfectly in place allowing his face, including his piercing blue eyes, to be seen. He was about two heads taller than Jonounchi, causing them to meet face-to-chest. His clothes covered his long limbs perfectly. _'Probably had it especially made, the bastard…'_ Jonounchi thought irritably.

Jonounchi looked up into the older boy's deep blue irises and scowled as he said, "I've often wondered what an ass like you is doing with such a large stick, but at least I had the decency to **not **ask, duchebag."

"Oh!" The crowd exclaimed as they quickly surrounded the two boys and drew out the word to emphasize it. With Kaiba's smirk still in place he leaned down to Jonounchi's level.

"Ok, cousin 'It", maybe if you take a comb to that rats nest you call hair, fleas might not get so attached. Still itching?"

"OH!" Once again came from the ever growing crowd only louder and longer this time. Angry and frustrated Jonounchi threw down his books and lunged at the brunette. Kaiba held his ground and pushed Jonouchi into the lockers. Barely acknowledging the pain, Jonouchi was already up and attacking again. He landed a punch on Kaiba's face and there was a pause of silence. The cries of _'Fight!'_ ceased, Kaiba's head was still turned away, and Jonouchi had a satisfactory smirk on his face. No one landed a punch on Kaiba before. Even though Jonouchi would surely die for that very reason he will always be known in Domino High School for being the first and most likely the only person to land a punch on Kaiba Seto. At least until next school year, by then no one will care. When Kaiba's head turned back without so much as a bruise, he successfully wiped the smirk off of Jonounchi's face. This further shocked the observers causing them to think the same thing, _'This dude is not friggin' human!'_ Kaiba took a menacing step toward Jonounchi right before a school authority yelled out, "Get to class! Move! Move! Move!" All of the students ran away and Jonounchi tried to get away in the panic but was caught by the back of his collar. Jonounchi turned to see who caught him and came face to face with short, fat, and balding Vice Principle Takashi.

"You know, if you want to not stick out don't have such bright hair." Takashi said in a condescending tone.

"Who said I did anything? If you didn't notice, half the school was running just now!" Jonounchi exclaimed.

Takashi chuckled, "We'll see what the principle has to say about that."

With a growl Jonounchi exclaimed, "What about the walking skyscraper, right there? The fact that you didn't say anything to him had nothing to do with the fact Kaiba may have or may have not donated to the school, huh?"

The Vice Principle sneered and tightened his hold on Jou's collar, partially cutting off his air supply. Jou brought up his hand and yanked the front of his collar to the side hard effectively forcing Takashi to loosen his grip and considering the look on Jou's face, Takashi was lucky that's all he did. Given how red Takashi got and the vein popping out his neck and forehead he didn't notice, but Kaiba did. Right before Takashi began at Jou again, Kaiba cut in.

"Takashi-san, the bell has already rung and the Mutt and I are already late. Are we going to get our late slips so we can go along our way?"

Flustered Takashi momentarily forgotten about the blonde. "U-uh…oh yes…here you are." Takashi handed Kaiba both slips and bowed. "Eheh…I seemed to have forgotten myself," Takashi gushed.

At the same time both boys left the man standing there talking to air. Once he realized he was alone he scowled and muttered, "Fucking brats…"

"Kaiba…"

"…"

"Kaiba…"

"…"

"Kaiba! Give me my late slip!"

"What late slip?" Kaiba asked as he continued walking down the hall. Jogging to catch up after he paused for a moment in shock and also because of the fast pace of Kaiba's strides.

"Stop actin' stupid, dumbass! You know what I mean!"

Kaiba sighed and stopped walking to turn and look at Jou. "I can't act at something you're so great at just being." Before Jou could start yelling like he looked like he wanted to, Kaiba continued, "Even thinking about striking a school official let alone the Vice Principle is idiocy to begin with."

For a moment, Jou was shocked at the statement but anger quickly resurfaced. "I wasn't planning on hitting that fat ass. I was getting ready to protect myself, since you may not have noticed but Vice **Pig** was in the middle of choking me!"

Kaiba scoffed, "Given your background he could have been beating you with a bat in front of the entire school and should you 'defend' yourself the least you would have gotten was expelled." Jou snatched the late slip Kaiba held out for him and sighed staring at the slip unseeingly.

"You think I don't know that…" Jou muttered angrily. It seemed as if he was going to continue but overwhelmed by his emotions Jou clenched his teeth and breathed out of his nose to calm himself. Finally looking up, Jou realized they've stopped. Looking further up he also realized he had Kaiba's undivided attention. With his blank face and his cold eyes, no one could be sure his undivided attention is something to be happy about. Staring back, Jou felt his angry expression change but he didn't pay attention to that. Not when Seto's face also began to soften.

Unfortunately, the door they were standing in front of slid open and broke the trance they were in. Kaiba pushed past Tristan who had a shocked-confused look on his face.

"Hey, Tris!" Jou said as he followed Kaiba inside, opting not to know why Tristan was frozen, Jou slipped by his friend as well.

The fact that Kaiba and Jou entered a classroom together and conveniently both had late slips wasn't that shocking, especially since they're often coming back from the office after a fight. Tristan, on the other hand, was still standing in the door way.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of it's characters…but if I did….

'Sliiiiick!' Jou thought as he left school. Knowing that he gets detention so regularly, he set his work schedule later to accommodate. When he explained to his boss the reason for his later shift his boss asked, "Well, why don't you just behave? Then you won't get detention." As if that was the most obvious solution. But once Jou explained that he attended Domino High, one of the wealthiest and most prestigious schools in Japan, which along with the fact that he came from the most infamous area around, made everything else self-explanatory.

He was now on his way to work, which was not necessarily in the abandoned part of Domino City, but was still close enough for the area to be considered shady. It was the type of neighborhood that is good enough during the day but at night it was best to be on your guard.

Therefore, when there was rustling in the garbage, Jou was on high alert. He was not about to naively dismiss it as a stray animal when it could just as easily not be. Quickly he called his boss down as he cautiously investigated the source of the sound. Normally in a horror movie Jou would be yelling at the screen for the dude/victim#1/fucking idiot to run. Jou was pretty sure that there was no crazy assed murderer about to jump out since he reasoned that if there was one he would have attacked while Jou was turned around as he put down the garbage.

Fortunately, he was right that there was no attacker. Unfortunately, it was a homeless woman that was digging through the garbage, making Jou curse his cautiousness for once. While his boss might be nice to his employees and customers, he attacked anyone suspicious including the homeless. Not that Jou blamed him since, in this neighborhood they were robbed (or attempted to be robbed in most cases) about twice a month, but even he views dumpster divers as thieves and is often quite violent with them.

Thinking quickly as he heard his bosses footsteps come nearer he placed a finger on his lips for her to see that he was signaling her to be silent. Sensing the urgency the girl quickly nodded. He pushed her behind the door and acted normal as his boss came rushing through the door.

"What is it?" Jou's boss asked.

"Oh…sorry about that Watanabe-san, I heard something in the trash…"

Watanabe stared at Jou as if he was assessing him. When he finally took his attention away from Jou, he took a look around before re-entering the store irritably. Jou waited a moment in silence, partly in fear of his boss coming back out but mostly to calm his frantically beating heart.

Finally breaking the silence with a sigh, Jou closed the door to the alley slightly to reveal the girl who, at that moment, looked like she was two seconds away from having a heart attack. Jou, not quite different from her in that aspect since his boss is only moments away from them, quickly took in the appearance of the person he'd found rifling through the garbage.

Her short uncolored, black hair lay flat against her head due to days –possibly weeks of neglect. She looked to be about 20 years old and she wore casual jean that looked thoroughly worn and a t-shirt caked in dirt. Looking at her reminded him of when he first found himself in the 'Abandoned' part of Domino.

_Clothes hanging off of his thin frame and grime so thick it was as if he'd never seen water. But even worse, he feared death. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten and even though he can easily get water at a public fountain he needs food to sustain him. In that heat it was too dangerous to eat out of the garbage since most of it was rotten, and there was no way to see the doctor if he did unfortunately contract food poisoning. Knowing that, he still never even considered going back to that hellhole. At least here on the streets there was some chance of getting access to food unlike at 'home'. As Jou pondered his situation he sat at the curb with an empty hat in front of him to silently ask for money. _

"_Hey kid!" Someone yelled causing Jou's head to snap up in alert. The moment he did a packaged red-bean bun was chucked at him. He looked up to see a boy not too much older than him ginning. The 'kid' comment coming from another kid should have ticked him off but all he could feel at the moment was relief. 'To eat again…'. With the fear of starvation temporarily lifted from his shoulders, tears began to silently stream down his face as he took the first bite from the bun. The warm sweet red beans gave him a sense of comfort._

_He looked at the boy again who, during his moment of silence, took a seat next to him with a worried expression on his face as he rubbed small soothing circles in his back._

"'_fank 'ou." Jou said with his mouth full and his voice shaking. The boy gave a gentle smile and said "Don't worry about it. Just eat and then I'll show you something good."_

_Jou smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever and nodded his head, "Un!" and began to finish off his red-bean bun._

Not everyone was so lucky in that part of Domino. Many don't survive when they enter that world. Because that is exactly what it was, another world separated from everybody and everything not associated with it. It is a world where the cops are the bad guys and most of the thugs were good in comparison. If you don't know what you're doing there you could end up drugged up, pimped out, raped, beat, and/or killed.

Jou looked at the woman who was unlucky enough to end up in such a place and said, "Wait here, I'm going to check out and bring you something to eat. Then I'll take you someplace good."


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of it characters.

Chapter 3

Jou watched her scarf down the onigiri he handed her.

"Slow down or else you'll…" Jou was cut off by the woman coughing to dislodge the food, "…choke." He finished off lamely. He lifted one arm of hers up to the sky as he pat her back. When the food dislodged and her coughs started to settle she choked out, "Thanks."

Jou shrugged as he opened a bottle or water and handed it over to her and said, "No prob."

After that they settled into a comfortable silence while walking down the street together. Breaking the silence, Jou spoke, "First rule, don't ask about anyone's past or of their relations with the police and/or the law. Doing something like that is extremely dangerous. Officials where we are going are the bad guys and the gangs members are too but at least they protect us from the police. Anyway, bringing up such accusations often lead to death and it isn't always necessarily the accused."

"Why are you telling me all of this? This has nothing to do with me." She replied with food tumbling out of her mouth as she spoke.

"Ok, A. It has everything to do with you…your poor. And B, I'm telling you this because I've decided to take you in," Jou said smiling. This caused her to look at him apprehensively and even stop eating.

Jou started to laugh as he said, "Don't worry. I'm not interested in you in any way. I'm just spreading the kindness since someone did the same for me a long time ago. On the streets without someone to guide you, especially women and gays, they often end up raped and or killed. Well for the gay guys it really if they pretty rather than gay but around here it's the same difference."

She looked up at him with horrified look at the mention of rape and then looked away while taking another bite of her food as she thought to herself. Once she swallowed she turned to him again and said, "Thank you. My name is Keiko Takashi."

"Jounounchi Katsuya but you can call me Jou."

Once they finally reached 'home' it can only be described as an abandoned building. The windows were boarded up, the paint was peeling, and the stairs looked unstable.

As they walked into the building that it was surprisingly stable since there were other squatters there as well though they're in different apartments. Some of them were nice as they passed and others were just plain rude as they uttered obscene language at them. While Keiko shrunk away from those people, Jou barely batted an eye. Once they reached Jou's apartment Keiko realized it was a studio with one bed. She looked at Jou trying to read his expression but it seemed to be the same as before. But as soon as he began to undress she bristled.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Jou looked up surprised and then confused. "I'm changing my clothes, if I mess up my uniform I'll have to buy new ones."

Then as if that was all that needed to be said he continued what he was doing. This caused Keiko to a look around the small apartment and she realized that even though only a young boy (as she saw him) lived there the apartment was perfectly clean bordering on O.C.D. As Jou bustled around and at this point completely ignoring her presence. Feeling the need to break the one-sided awkward silence she said, "…It's really…clean."

"Yeah, well…I'm already poor. I don't need to be dirty on top of that, besides it's cheaper to keep things clean…" Jou trailed off as he finished putting away his things.

"Ok!" Jou breathed out loudly once he completed whatever took away his attention initially. He turned his attention back to Keiko who jumped at his sudden change of attention.

"This is the story," Jou instructed, "You got pregnant and caught HIV. Your parents kicked you out and since you were already jobless, there was nowhere for you to go but the streets. The stress of the events caused you to miscarriage. Ok?"

"What about we met?" She asked perplexed.

"Just tell the truth about that. You'll see why I gave you that story soon enough." Jou seemed grim as he said this.

The next day when Jou got up to get ready for school and bustled around the small apartment he woke up Keiko, by accident, in the process. She sat up from her place on the floor and rubbed her eyes as she asked, "Where are we going?"

"**We** aren't going anywhere. **I'm** going to school and you sticking to the story today while you're in the neighborhood. Oh, and you can come on the bed now since I'm heading out. Though, I still don't get why you can't share a king size bed."

"I already told you that I'm not sleeping on a bed someone died on and I don't share beds with young men I barely know." She replied irritably.

Jou explained, "No one died on it. Everyone knows that every few years rich people replace all of the mattresses in their mansions. When that happens they donate them or just throw them out but either way it's a mattress free for all. Also, I already told you that I'm not interested. You can't tempt me; it won't happen."

Keiko sighed, "Still you knew I was unwilling. You seriously couldn't relinquish the mattress for me, a woman?"

"Hell freakin' no. I got school and work. Why would I pass up good comfy sleep that I need for a retarded reason when we could just share."

Keiko was shocked silent when Jou said this.

"Anyway," he continued, "see ya later."

It was short but that is the introduction of Keiko.


End file.
